Swedish tanks part 27: Strv m/42-57 alt A.2.

Rita Sobral

Author: sp15

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The Strv m/42-57 was just revealed as the first Swedish tank to be added to WoT and with this news, I couldn’t help but write a short article on the matter. I have been working on a Swedish tree for three years now yet this came as a complete surprise to me. The Strv m/42-57 is one of those vehicles I have only briefly mentioned before in my strv 74 article, it’s a premium candidate I have never thought too much about. But there was something special about getting to see it for real in the game. I have also seen some confusion about this vehicle so I thought it would be a nice idea to give you a historical overview to try and clear some things up.

History

In the spring of 1954 the Swedish army was looking at options to upgrade their existing tanks. The adoption of the Centurion Mk.3 a year earlier had thrown a wrench into the plans of tank acquisition for the foreseeable future. This had caused a last minute cancellation of negotiations for the purchase and license production of 400 AMX 13 light tanks. With only 240 Centurion tanks available there was a need to come up with something to fill the gap until more could be purchased. There had already been attempts with re-arming earlier tanks, but these had been underpowered. With the Centurion now taking up the Strv m/42’s role it was decided to switch the re-arming efforts to the m/42 instead.

Earlier projects
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On the 15th of February 1954 army representatives met with engineer’s at Landsverk to discuss the possibility of rebuilding the Strv m/42. The army required that as much as possible of the original tank would be retained while the armament changed to a version of the Lvkan m/36-37 anti-aircraft gun, this while keeping a maximum weight of 24 tonnes. Some changes were, however, to be made such as reinforcement of the suspension and changes to the steering gear. On the 18th discussions continued this time with the different alternatives for up gunning as the main subject. Alternatives A.1. trough A.3. represented different turret configurations. There was also considerations for rebuilding the vehicles as TD’s in the same style as the Pvkv m/43, this was known as alternative B. These options were meant to be ready for production by 1957 and the rebuild program was thus called Strv m/42-57.

Alternative A.1.
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This was the conventional turret. This configuration would be able to keep the 15dg gun depression of the original turret while in theory at least keeping the same protection. This was the army’s preferred choice, and would eventually become the Strv 74.

Alternative A.3.
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This represented the “delat torn” (divided turret) concept developed and trialled in the mid to late 40’s by Sweden. Essentially the turret would be split into two halves with a mechanically loaded gun in the middle. This was considered to be the worst alternative.

Alternative A.2.
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The alt A.2. represented the option of mounting an AMX type turret on the Strv m/42. This oscillating design would allow for a lighter turret with better stabilisation. It’s main drawback compared to the conventional design was the worse frontal protection, and a drastic reduction in gun depression compared to the original turret. Ultimately concerns about the cost of having to change turret ring diameter meant that this alternative was not chosen.

In WoT

While I’m excited to see the first Swedish tank getting added to the game it is clear that there are problems with the vehicle. Though I want to state that all hard stats (armor, penetration, horsepower) are correct as far as I can tell. The model quality is also very good.

Currently, there are some major problems with the Strv m/42-57. Going by the hard stats alone it’s a underwhelming vehicle. The low mobility and lack of armor mean that the firepower must really compensate for these flaws, however, currently, this is simply not the case. The gun has mostly decent stats but what really lets it down is a laughably bad damage output of only 1300 DPM. This is 700! less damage per minute compared to the Cromwell. Something also needs to be said for the small magazine size of the autoloader and long reload time between shells, which means this vehicle does not even get a significant burst damage advantage either.

Keep in mind that these early supertest stats are subject to change. But I wanted to draw attention to them anyway since they really need to be addressed. In any case, I do hope WG takes their time to work out these issues, and I do hope you enjoyed reading. If you did there is plenty more to come. In fact, there is another article already on its way which will cover the Swedish light/medium line.

Source(s):
http://tanks.mod16.org/2013/11/23/meeti … -strv-m42/
http://tanks.mod16.org/2013/11/23/alter … -strv-m42/

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Swedish tanks part 27: Strv m/42-57 alt A.2.

30 thoughts on “Swedish tanks part 27: Strv m/42-57 alt A.2.”

  1. Great article as usual, sp-15! One thing to note: The in-game model is apparently going to be receiving the non-autoloading gun, sadly(-ish). Sadly, at the moment, it appears to have about the same terrible DPM of the autoloader, but… hopefully they’ll change this before release.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous says:

      Considering all the hard stats being bad to mediocre and lack of depression so would they almost have to balance it out with good dpm, else it will just be awefull. The only real alternative would be to bump it down a tier.

      Reply

      1. As it is now, it looks a lot like the tier 5 Sherman M4A1 with the top 76mm (similarly-mediocre DPM, meh armor, slow-ish speed, etc), so that wouldn’t be too bad of an idea if they didn’t want to change it otherwise. They’d have to adjust its health and MAYBE its penetration, sure, but… it’d work, nonetheless.

        Still, I’m hoping it’ll be a tier 6 with improved DPM/speed, or just the autoloader (also with better DPM/reload time) – but I’m personally leaning towards the autoloader since it’s more unique (and fun).

    2. RagnarokBazil says:

      Im still waiting for a Sp1c buff to mobility power to Wight ratio needs at least to be 34 to be a good light and a traverse of at least 65

      Reply
  5. sp15 says:

    Uhh.. wrong article rita, this one was already uploaded weeks ago. She was meant to upload The Swedish light/medium branch article… so hopefully that will be fixed soon enough

    Reply
  7. Erik says:

    Finally Swedish tanks are happening! Can’t wait until they manage a full tech tree. Strv 103, BKAN1 and Strv Emil

    Reply
    1. ndiver says:

      And again I saw it in small, before the Alternative A1: “There was also considerations for rebuilding the vehicles as TD’s in the same style as the Pvkv m/43, this was known as alternative B.”

      Reply
  11. Jan Manthay says:

    “I have been working on a Swedish tree for three years now ”
    …you mean, as a hobby? Or for wargaming???

    Reply

  15. During the last 2 weeks or so, content on this blog has been lacking. And that’s putting it mildly.
    June 9: A “funny glitch” that’s not a glitch at all, nor is it funny.
    June 9: Copy/Paste of the football missions
    June 9: Some WoWS+GeForce marketing thingy that happens once in a while but this time it was worth writing about it (no, actually, there weren’t many things to write about so this had to fill the empty blog pages)
    June 9: WoWS video / commercial… at this one was a bit funny. [OK]
    June 10: Fund raiser, Wargaming NA, something, something, very little connection the the actual game.
    June 10: World of Papoj (finally, something that’s worth accesing the blog for) [OK]
    June 10: Sandbox update… 1 phrase and most of us already knew that piece of info from various other sources.
    June 10: Guest article. Interesting. [OK]
    June 13: 3 sandbox HD vehicles [OK]
    June 13: WoT russian commercial 😐
    June 15: “Secret” spot on map… Seriously? There are many such spots where you need the help of teammates. There’s no news here. A news would have been if you could access that spot on your own. Not the case.
    June 15: Tanks crushing stuff… there are… 4327143261576 clips showing that on the internet.
    June 16: Sandbox stuff. [OK]
    June 16: Sandbox stuff copy/paste from WG page
    June 16: Some “very important and nice” guy leaves WG… Jesus, what an important piece of content. You deserve a Pullizer for this one.
    June 17: Four (4!) images of updated minimaps. No content, no discussion about them.
    June 17: Boring stuff about tank building/recovery (Now, some of us might like these kind of shows so I won’t say it’s bad content.) [OK]
    June 17: 3 sandbox HD vehicles again (this time, “in game” images)
    June 17: Armor schematics and comparison of the 3 HD vehicles in sandbox (because merging the two articles wasn’t showing as more articles)
    June 17: A very bad glitch discovered on the new football mode… that will surely influence the gameplay… are you for real?
    June 17: 9.15.1 HD models (it includes the 3 sandbox HD vehicles) [OK]
    June 17: A very bad WoWS Japanese commercial…
    June 18: Pics with tanks from a gathering…
    June 18: Copy/Paste of an older guest article

    So, in 10 days, 24 articles (entries) and only 7 (give or take, depends on personal taste of each reader) are [OK]. Now, the question is… why do you keep the blog alive when it’s clear that you’re more interested in other things?

    I’m one of the old readers. I was a big fun of Silentstalker’s blog and I was concerned when he ended it. I saw your blog as a continuation of his and at the beginning you were doing a good job. But it’s clear as day that if you compare the articles of a complete week from now with the articles from then, the quality will be in favor of the past articles. It feels like you’re targeting a completely new type of readers: children. With all that comic content and “sensational” titles where it’s hardly the case, you can’t hope to keep mature readers interested. People that like reading historical articles about the tanks that will get in the game or about obscure tanks that might appear at one point; paper projects that we don’t know about; this is the stuff SS readers loved about his blog. You’ll lose them if you haven’t already. But I guess there are more kids playing the game and so, more readers that like watching bad “glitches” and “funny” commercials.

    That said, I’m out to find a better source of WoT news. I know you couldn’t care less since I’m only one reader. Ta-ta!

    Reply
    2. Jan Manthay says:

      I agree with you. The quality of the articles is most time bad. They have mistakes, they are not logical. Often Copy&Paste without thinking. If there is a mistake and it is mentioned in the comments, nothing happens. On the other hand, it’s a lot of WG bashing in the style of “Oh, look what this stupid company is doing again, they will never learn”.
      Really not worth reading anymore, but it’s hard to abandon a habit.

      Reply

    5. I have warned in the blog that this is the busiest time of the year, one more week (Tankfest) and I will finally be done with the lunacy that June is. About this article, I actually posted the wrong one, had 2 drafts (this one, that I had uploaded before and a new one, I was so exhausted working in the middle of the night trying to leave content for you that clicked publish in the wrong article). I got a few interviews that I’m working on but will be done after tankfest, right now my life (June) has been living like a hermit, I’m barely home and when I am, I desperately try to deliver you the things regardless of if I need a rest or shower. I’m also gathering footage and contacts around the tank world and taking my class H license (Class H in the UK is for tracked vehicles) so I’m able to take tanks/APCs, etc on public road.

      I understand that you are not satisfied and I thank you for putting that much effort in a comment, means you care. And no, I havent lost readers in general numbers.

      Like I said, I love doing this, but this wont be around forever, WoT wont be around forever, I also have to invest on building a future and live a little bit.

      Note: I’m getting one or 2 authors to join me in RSR.

      Reply

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